Why Does NASA Study Earth?

Focus Areas

Why Does NASA Study Earth?

NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) missions help us to understand our planet’s interconnected systems, from a global scale down to minute processes. Working in concert with a satellite network of international partners, ESD can measure precipitation around the world, and it can employ its own constellation of small satellites to look into the eye of a hurricane. ESD technology can track dust storms across continents and mosquito habitats across cities. ESD delivers the technology, expertise and global observations that help us to map the myriad connections between our planet’s vital processes and the effects of ongoing natural and human-caused changes. Using observations from satellites, instruments on the International Space Station, airplanes, balloons, ships and on land, ESD researchers collect data about the science of our planet’s atmospheric motion and composition; land cover, land use and vegetation; ocean currents, temperatures and upper-ocean life; and ice on land and sea. These data sets, which cover even the most remote areas of Earth, are freely and openly available to anyone.

Earth Science Focus Areas

  • Atmospheric Composition
  • Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics
  • Climate Variability and Change
  • Water and Energy Cycle
  • Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems
  • Earth Surface and Interior

Atmospheric Composition

The Atmospheric Composition focus area consists of research on the composition of Earth's atmosphere, particularly of the troposphere and stratosphere, in relation to climate forcing, atmospheric ozone and aerosols, solar effects, air quality, and surface emissions of radiatively and chemically active source gases and particulates. Weather: Our weather system includes the dynamics of the atmosphere and its interaction with the oceans and land and involves phenomena ranging from local or microphysical processes lasting minutes to global- scale events predictable up to two weeks prior.

Climate Variability & Change

NASA's role in climate variability study is centered around providing the global scale observational data sets on oceans and ice, their forcings, and the interactions with the entire Earth system.

Water & Energy Cycle

The Water & Energy Cycle focus area studies the distribution, transport, and transformation of water and energy within the Earth System. Continuous work includes defining global precipitation, reducing the uncertainties of estimates of W&E budget terms, and having a strong focus on improving remote sensing techniques for land water stores and fluxes such as soil moisture, snow, ground water, discharge, ET, as well as water quality components.

Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems

This Focus Area deals with the cycling of carbon in reservoirs and ecosystems as it changes naturally, is changed by humans, and is affected by climate change.

Earth Surface & Interior

NASA’s Earth Surface and Interior focus area supports research and analysis of solid-Earth processes and properties from crust to core. This includes providing the space geodetic observations and products foundational to many space missions.

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